Comic Book / The Desert Peach

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Erwin: [War] is not a game! What would you know about it? All you care about it is whether you can get the correct brand of mineral water!

Pfirsich: Maybe if more people worried about the things I worry about, and less about the things you worry about, we wouldn't have all this silly war business.

During World War II, fighting for the Germans was a general called Erwin Rommel: "The Desert Fox". This comic isn't about him. This comic is about his fictional gay younger brother, Pfirsich Rommel: "The Desert Peach".

Pfirsich is a colonel (oberst) running a small support unit of gravediggers in the Afrika Corps. He's helped by his trusted orderly Corporal Udo Schmidt, annoyed by the Nazi-supporting Lt. Kjars Winzig and loved by his handsome fiance Rosen Kavalier.

Pfirsich's unit doesn't really fight in battle, and the Peach likes it that way. Most of the comic revolves around the interactions between the characters, the various messes they get into, and how they deal with war. The Desert Peach is notable for its incredibly human characters, who all have faults and make mistakes yet are still heartwarming and engaging. It's also one of the few works of fiction that remembers that the Wehrmacht wasn't entirely made of up people who committed breathtakingly disgusting atrocities against innocent and/or helpless people, though this is helped by the focus on the African Front - a marginal part of the war in which the stakes were low, the need to extort food and clothing and housing from the local population was also low, and there was no intention to exterminate the local population (as in the northern, central, southern, and south-eastern fronts of the Eastern European Theatre). The story does well to present everyone as human throughout, something many stories that 'do' acknowledge the Wehrmacht's jaw-droppingly long list of cruel and brutal acts fail to do.

Originally published in print, it's now being released online (may be NSFW).

The spin-off novel Bread & Swans, implies that Rosen had only ever had sex with women until he met Pfirsich. There's a line about Pfirsich's beauty activating the part of Rosen's brain that is apparently best described as "an omnisexual monkey".

Alternate History: After a fashion; Erwin Rommel did have a younger brother named Manfred (Pfirsich's first name), but in real life this brother died in infancy. In her words, the author 'developed a personality the universe had prematurely discarded'.

Artistic License – History: Contrary to what the comic claims, Udo could not have been a member of the Nazi Party while in the Heer. Longstanding German law provides that political party membership lapses instantly upon entering the armed forces.

Really, it'd be easier to list the stuff that doesn't fall under this. Just to point out the two most obvious matters; Pfirsich and Rosen couldn't be engaged in that time period, as gay marriage was an unthinkable concept in any Western country in the world, and Pfirsich wouldn't even be allowed to hold his position, given that A: homosexuals in general were held up as abominations and forbidden service in the military in every Western country, and B: Nazi Germany categorized homosexuals as undesireables and treated them exactly the way they treated Jews, Africans, Romani and the mentally disabled.note Which is to say they worked them to death in concentration camps. Or just shot them and left the body in a ditch.

Beware the Nice Ones: Pfirsich is a true gentleman, unless you do something that makes him angry (such as beating up his orderly).

Cool and Unusual Punishment: Pfirsich decides the men have had too much time to cause trouble, and orders his sergeant major to come up with something to keep them busy.. The punishment? Move the ENTIRE camp exactly one meter to the right.

Drugs Are Bad: They cause the normally effeminate Pfirsich to act extemely macho. And psychotic to boot.

Only Sane Man: Udo tends to act like this because he feels that the rest of his unit can be nuts. See Butt-Monkey above.

Painting the Medium: An early issue starts with Pfirsich in prison and the comic in white lines on black. Then his brother shows up and rips and tears until normalcy is restored. "When you're a legend, you can do anything!"

Eddsel: "My duty demands that I point out that you have a unit that consists of NOTHING but stray puppies!"

Pfirsich: "Herr Doctor, YOU have just been assigned to this unit.."

Eddsel: "Woof woof Mein Herr."

Reliably Unreliable Guns: Pfirsich is facing down an angry mob of local women, who want the head (and various other bits) of one of the men in his unit (who totally deserves it). Pfirsich draws his pistol (duty is duty, even for scum) and gets a stovepipe jam. He's ready to clear it (a matter of 2 seconds), when he realizes..

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